Forms in Arkansas

Why Arkansas has no numbered statewide petition

The Arkansas Supreme Court Library's official guide, Arkansas Legal Forms: Sources of Information, lists what the Arkansas Judiciary's own Court Forms page provides. That includes Probate Division forms, Child Support forms, and Order of Protection forms. A Complaint for Divorce is not among them. The same guide sends self-represented litigants to Arkansas Law Help for self-help forms in civil matters. Arkansas Law Help is run by Legal Aid of Arkansas and the Center for Arkansas Legal Services. In practice, a divorce complaint in Arkansas is either attorney-drafted or produced through Legal Aid of Arkansas's interactive Divorce Packet. It isn't downloaded as a single official numbered state document.

The authoritative kit: Legal Aid of Arkansas's Divorce Packet

The Divorce Packet at a.arlawhelp.org/divorce-separation-annulment/divorce/divorce-packet is a free, guided step-by-step interview that generates a Complaint for Divorce and related filing paperwork. It's scoped to a simple divorce where the spouses have no minor children together. It isn't built for cases involving custody, contested property division, or other complications. Arkansas Law Help is the resource the state's own Supreme Court Library guide points self-represented filers toward. That makes it the closest thing Arkansas has to an authoritative statewide divorce-forms kit, even though it's legal-aid-run rather than court-run.

Financial disclosure: the Affidavit of Financial Means

Arkansas's standardized financial disclosure document is the Affidavit of Financial Means. It's a fillable form on the Arkansas Judiciary's Court Forms page. Courts use it in domestic-relations and support proceedings, where each party discloses income, expenses, assets, and debts. This affidavit is distinct from the In Forma Pauperis Affidavit. That's a separate fee-waiver document, filed under Rule 72 of the Arkansas Rules of Civil Procedure, for filers who cannot afford court costs.

Forms for cases with children

Legal Aid of Arkansas's Divorce Packet excludes cases with minor children. Filers with children need a different path, both for the custody terms and for any UCCJEA jurisdictional disclosure. The Arkansas Judiciary's Court Forms page doesn't list a specific, separately numbered UCCJEA affidavit form. Filers with children should check Arkansas Law Help's broader family-law content and confirm with the circuit clerk what jurisdictional disclosure paperwork the court requires alongside the complaint.

E-filing and self-help support

Arkansas's statewide e-filing platform is eFlex, accessed via efile.arcourts.gov. It's open to pro se litigants. But mandatory e-filing for self-represented parties is set case-by-case or court-by-court, not automatically across the state. Individual circuit clerks roll out local mandatory e-filing orders on their own schedule. Even where a mandate exists, it commonly excludes the original fee-triggering filing. That means a divorce complaint itself may still have to be filed on paper in that county. Confirm current e-filing status with the specific circuit clerk.

Arkansas does not operate a full dedicated self-help center network for family law. The Arkansas Judiciary's own self-help page functions mainly as a directory pointing to outside organizations. Legal Aid of Arkansas serves as the practical self-help resource for divorce.